A high content imaging system (HCIS) may be used for semi-automatically or automatically capture images of a microscopy sample. A typical HCIS includes a microscope having objective lenses of different magnifications, one or more illumination sources and an image capture device such as a charge-coupled device or a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip to produce images of the microscopy samples. The illumination source may include a laser or other light source that scans the microscopy sample with focused light, and light reflected from microscopy sample and/or transmitted through the microscopy sample is imaged by the image capture device. In some cases, the illumination source may cause the microscopy sample to fluoresce and light emitted by such fluorescence may be captured by the image capture device.
In addition, the microscopy samples may reside at various measurement locations (e.g., wells) of a sample holder. Once the HCIS is configured with acquisition parameter values for a selected objective lens and illumination source, the HCIS may automatically image a plurality of microscopy samples using the selected objective lens and illumination source. Such acquisition parameter values may include an exposure time per wavelength of light to produce an image of a particular intensity, a distance between the focal plane of the objective and the illumination source focus position, and laser autofocus exposure time.
Typically, each time a different objective lens is selected for use with the microscopy sample, the acquisition parameter values used for imaging may need to be adjusted based on the new objective lens. Such adjustment of acquisition parameter values may have to be specified by the user using one or more sample images captured by the HCIS, and thus reduce the efficiency of the HCIS.